#396

        Song:   hum kya bataayen tumse kyuun duur ho gaye hain
                qismat se tang aakar majbuur ho gaye hain

        Film:   Jaan Pehchaan (1950)
        Singer: Shankar Dasgupta (?)
        Music:  Khemchand Prakash
        Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
        *ing:   Raj Kapoor, Nargis

Couple of questions about this song (and the movie in general)  :
Firstly,  is  the  artiste's  name Shankar Dasgupta or Shankardas
Gupta ?  I've seen both references. Secondly, the movie  has  two
MDs  in  its credits - Khemchand Prakash and Manna Dey. Given the
year of its release, I'm guessing  that  Khemchand  Prakash  died
before  completing the score for the movie (IIRC he died in 1950)
and Manna filled in for him. Does anyone know  which  songs  from
the movie were composed by Manna Dey ?

This is one of two beautiful songs by this lesser-known singer in
the movie, both picturized on Raj Kapoor (the other one : "dukhse
bharaa hua hai dil, jiine mei.n kuchh mazaa nahii.n"). If you mix
C  H  Atma's and Arun Kumar's voices, distribute them equally and
add  a  hint  of   Mukesh's   nasality,   you'd   end   up   with
Shankar(das)Gupta's  voice-   a voice well-tailored for rendering
slow, sad tunes like this one. It's sad to see such good  singers
eclipsed  by the aura of the likes of Rafi, Mukesh, etc. I'd like
to have heard more from this artiste.

The movie  has  a  wealth  of  wonderful  Geeta  Roy  songs,  all
picturized  on  Nargis ; including my favorite Talat/Geeta duet :
"armaan bharey dil ki lagan tere liye hai",  which  I  think  was
posted by Snehal on ATMJH in days gone by.

Aside: this is one of the few movies that featured  Jeevan  in  a
positive, non-villain role, playing a brotherly figure to Nargis.
It's refreshing to see him in this noble persona.  Another aside:
1950  saw the maximum number of Nargis releases, only two of them
with Raj Kapoor (the  other  one  was  called  "Pyaar"-  talk  of
original  names), and none under the RK banner.  (That's right, I
just received the "Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema"
 in the mail yesterday, so I'm brimming with trivia :-))



Guest Author: Hrishi Dixit